Crowded Tokyo

Just to give you an idea how crowded Tokyo is :D




Note: pictures were taken in Hachiko crossing in Shibuya, one of the most favorite places for hanging out in Tokyo.

Japan 3: sushi

Sushi is definitely something not to be missed in Japan!

During the weekend we went to the kaiten sushi, a restaurant that sells sushi in conveyor belts. The sushi move around, so you just sit and wait for your favorite to come :D.

And Japan it is, where technology is applied in daily life. Even in the kaiten sushi where we had lunch, which is actually the cheapest sushi restaurant in town, there is a machine in every desk for a customer to order sushi. We didn't have to shout to ask our fav maguro (tuna) or sake (salmon).

Another thing is a plates counter. Normally, a waiter will come to count how many plates we ate (two sushi in a plate :D), but using this counter we can just simply insert the plates and the number of plates will appear in the display.

left: order machine, right: plates counter

Convenient, isn't it? ;)

Japan 2: natural disasters

Last weekend was supposed to be a long weekend with some traveling. Unfortunately, typhoon came from the southern part, hit Okinawa and some part of Kyushu, and was predicted to come to Tokyo as well. One thing we have to learn from Japan is their awareness in natural disasters --those that attacks Japan often, by having good prediction and warning system. The TV broadcasted the typhoon warning, and this Japan Meteorology Agency's website kept us updated.

Here was the forecast for Saturday. The prediction caused us to cancel our planned trip to Kamakura and Enoshima, in southern part of Yokohama, as we concerned that going to seaside was not a wise thing to do in such a weather. I remember being in the middle of typhoon when it attacked Tokyo in October 2004. I was on the way to a friend's house --still not pretty sure where it was located. Pretty scary as I knew I was however in danger :D


The prediction is not always true, especially when it interpolates the typhoon movements for many hours later. The typhoon was predicted to hit Tokyo on the following Monday, but during the day the weather was clear. The typhoon eventually turned to the sea of Japan instead of moving up to Kanto area. I regret that I didn't check the latest update :-(


However, it seems that my visit to Japan is welcomed by natural disasters --reminding me that it was disaster survival training that I had in the first few weeks of my exchange year in 2004. On Monday, which was the last day of the long weekend, earthquake attacked Niigata prefecture (160 miles away northwest from Tokyo). Pretty hard, as the shake was said to be also felt in Tokyo, which I luckily didn't feel anything.

Some after shock still occurred, again also felt in Tokyo, but I somehow felt safe that my husband has a survival bag hanging on the wall since a while ago. I don't expect to have to use it, though. In addition, there is always an evacuation area in every part of the city to where people could run to, should an earthquake occur. Earthquake is something obvious in Japan, so it seems that the government has managed a system for the survival.

Natural disasters are something we cannot avoid, however, those are something that we'd better put our efforts to cope with. That's what I learned from Japan.

Japan 1: food & service

Day one; back to Japan again.
A beautiful country with its fast life pace, one that put me a few years ago in a stressful yet interesting life; one that I miss once I am far away.

Fish and seafood are what I always find best here. It is fresh and its taste is unquestionable. Yesterday we were starving from almost-a-day journey from our western home, so very lucky to have a nice stop by having these food for a late lunch.

Tamago to hotate okake gohan (rice with egg and fried scallop) for me

Zalfany started to be cheerful again *haha*, once he bit "aji" fish

Ah yes, and the service we had was kind of telling me that indeed I've arrived in Japan! Very polite and helpful, and yes, the customer is king. ;-)

Hadiah (2)

Kembali bercerita tentang teman-teman saya yang sering membuat terharu. Hari Sabtu (19 Agustus) yang lalu, bertepatan juga dengan pesta kembang api di tepi sungai Futakotamagawa, Morita-san, senior satu grup ketika di lab tahun lalu itu, mengundang kami ke pesta-nya. Sebenarnya itu bukan pestanya, karena pesta itu ia siapkan untuk "merayakan" pernikahan kami.

Saya kira ini akan menjadi acara kumpul-kumpul kami seperti biasa. Masak bersama-sama lalu makan sambil mengobrol. Ternyata, sekalipun acara masak-memasak dan bakar-membakar BBQ tetap ada, teman-teman kami datang dengan membawa masakannya. Teman dari Pakistan datang membawa makanan Pakistan *yummy, saya suka pedasnya!*, teman dari Cina pun nggak ketinggalan bawa masakannya. Dan mereka sengaja membeli daging dari toko halal untuk memasaknya. Selain itu, seorang teman Jepang yang baru saja pulang dari liburannya di Indonesia membuatkan kami martabak pisang --resep Indonesia yang didapatnya di internet. *Minna...*

Dan kemudian, Morita-san berkata, "Ada kue nikah 2 tingkat lho!"
Aaa.. ini kue strawberry yang manis itu, versi "gajah" kue dari Teh Iis (sayang kue buatan Teh Iis saya tidak punya fotonya). Ada tulisannya: "Happy Wedding Desiree & Zalfany".


Kue ini betul-betul besar! Dengan 15 orang yang datang waktu itu, benar-benar butuh perjuangan untuk menghabiskannya.

Dan ternyata, kue ini bukan kejutan terakhir... Di antara semua kado-kado mereka, satu yang paling mengesankan. Mereka memainkan "Bridal Chorus" - Wagner, dengan angklung! Morita-san yang memiliki satu set angklung dan mereka berlatih dulu, katanya. Mereka juga bisa memainkan lagu "Happy Birthday" untuk salah satu teman kami berulang tahun hari itu. Mereka tampak gembira, dan saya juga tentu saja senaaaaang sekali.


Teman-teman saya dengan angklungnya :)

Duduk di tepi sungai futakotamagawa.
Memandangi langit biru yang cerah berubah merah dalam senja.
Menikmati kembang api yang menari-nari mewarnai langit malam.
Terharu dan sangat bersyukur.

*Kapan ya, saya punya kesempatan seperti mereka untuk membahagiakan teman saya yang lainnya... Dan jika kesempatan itu ada, akankah saya ingat untuk ada di sana?*

Hadiah (1)

Terharu.

Teman-temanku... mereka selalu berhasil membuat saya merasa diakui dan dicintai. Dan itu membuat saya bertanya-tanya pada diri sendiri. Apakah saya, sebaliknya, pernah juga membuat teman-teman saya merasa bahwa mereka disayangi dan dihargai sebagai bagian dari hidup saya?

Jumat malam yang lalu, saya dan suami ke Hakkeijima. Hadiah dari teman-teman Indonesia di Tokodai, ketika beberapa minggu yang lalu mereka mengadakan pesta kecil untuk kami. Teh Nia dan Teh Iis menjamu kami semua di rumahnya. Teh Nia masak makanan yang enak :) dan Teh Iis membuat kue strawberry yang manis sekali. Teman-teman yang lain pun banyak yang datang. Minna, hontouni arigatou ne.

Hakkeijima. Summer night, sea paradise. Tepi laut di sore hari, indah sekali. Hakkeijima terletak di Yokohama bay, satu setengah jam dengan kereta. Di sini, kami mengunjungi aqua museum yang merupakan museum laut interaktif terbesar di Jepang. Seperti sea world di Jakarta, tapi di sini juga ada binatang-binatang kutub. Di sini juga kami bisa melihat pertunjukan lumba-lumba, anjing laut, dan penguin yang lucu-lucu. *Duh, kapan ya terakhir kali lihat atraksi seperti ini :)* Entah kenapa, melihat mereka membuat hatiku tergerak. Entah perasaan apa itu. Antara kasihan karena mereka harus terkurung di situ, tapi juga terharu merasakan rasa sayang pelatih-pelatih binatang itu kepada mereka.

Beberapa suasana "laut" Hakkeijima:


yokohama bay
Foto ini diambil dari monorail "sea side line" yang menghubungkan Kanazawa Hakkei (sebuah stasiun di selatan Kanagawa-ken) dengan Hakkeijima.


pelikan

Sesuatu yang spesial dari sea paradise di sana adalah hanabi (fireworks) simfonia. Kami duduk di pinggir pantai, memandang laut di seberang -tempat kembang api - kembang api itu diluncurkan. Sepuluh menit kembang api itu menari-nari diiringi musik sebagai latar belakangnya. Musim panas di Jepang ini salah satunya memang ditandai dengan pesta kembang api di mana-mana. Pesta kembang api di Hakkeijima ini termasuk salah satu yang komersial, namun banyak pula pesta kembang api lainnya (yang bahkan dengan durasi hingga 1 jam lebih) yang diselenggarakan oleh pemerintah sebagai hiburan rakyat.

artificial

Always be careful when building a relationship with a real human being
but be more careful when building it with an artificial one.

PS: picture was taken in June 2006, in Toyota-shi --days out with my sister

another philosophy: 合気道

The more I get into the Japanese art, the more I get the philosophical impression. Couple months ago was the flower arrangement turn and this time would be the martial art.
Can you read the Chinese character below?



The first kanji is 合"ai" means harmony, the second is 氣 or sometimes simplified to 気 "ki" meaning spirit, mind, or universal energy, and the last is 道 "dou" meaning path or way. Put it together, it becomes 合気道 or "Aikido", that commonly translated as the way to harmonize the spirit.

Aikido is one type of Japanese martial arts, that was found by Morihei Ueshiba, innovated from the combination of the derivation of jujitsu, his father's political ideologies, and his deep understanding toward life. As its consistency to its name meaning, Aikido does not focus on punching or kicking, but on self defense that harmonize the opponent's energy to throw it away from you. In practice, I found that it is not only a matter about how to use the opponent's energy, but also the matter about how to meet your spirit -and your mind.

However, don't you ever think that it is indeed important to fully use your spirit when doing things? I mean, in the real world? Well, we practised an attacking technique today. It was the "one hand holding one opponent's hand" attack, and sensei explained it by 「心が手で持つ」 meaning the heart holds by the means of the hand, instead of saying 「手が持つ」 meaning the hand holds. He emphasized: heart.

You may say that it might be nonsense. But I was shown that the state of the mind works. When I really meant to hold my partner's hand, I really held it. It was simply light hold -not a grab, but it was hardly loosened. Another example, I was forcefully trying to push my partner away. It was impossible, sure, since he was stronger than me and one of the jyokyusei (advanced disciple). Sensei told me to unintentionally push him, and think to reach something steps ahead. Finally I made him fall, and I felt nothing meaningful was heading. Another good illustration that sensei mentioned was, assume that we have something ahead as our goal -he took Tokodai as the example because there were many first year students, and our opponent is the rock heading our way to get to Tokodai. And think, he said, that we are now walking reaching Tokodai -the goal, instead of focusing that now we are pushing the rock -the problem away.

Keep focusing on your goal, eh?
It is about to keep your mind -and your spirit sticking into it, isn' it?
-and well, it is what aikido about anyway ;)

-desiree-
...my goal today is to finish the experiments here before going home, and my rock is that i couldn't help not writing this blog...

flower for the children

All of the leaves in the flower that I arranged for the children day, only represented present and future.
Because children are growing from this point -and are optimistic to see the future.

And so should I, I reckon.
Looking straight forward to the future -but I am luckier than those children, for having the past from which I can learn.


my ikebana

PS: *thanks for a long talk, sita*

utsunomiya

I went to Tochigi this weekend, with my YSEP fellows and my YSEP professors, to have one night homestay with a Japanese family in Utsunomiya city. Utsunomiya was awesome. It doesn't look like Japan *at least Japan where I live now*. It is really closed to the nature: mountain, lake, hills, and even farm! And the people -somehow- look happier than people in Tokyo.

My hostfamily seemed to like nature a lot -as I enjoyed it very much too. We went to the farm, located 1030m high from the sea level. We were freezing -but then I found that having soft cream in 5 degree Celcius could throw your influenza away. *but I don't recommend you to try this anyway!*

Apart from that, the stay with my hostfamily was perfect. What a nice family. We talked a lot of things -until one o'clock in the morning and spent Sunday morning walking out to the green park.

It was really an enriching activity, both in cultural understanding and self understanding :p
Many thanks to my host family -Yoshi san and Yuki san, Utsunomiya no Hippo family club and Sato sensei! Now I arrived home with a bunch of things -and thoughts.

色々お世話になりまして、ありがとうございました。

[five things]

...relax
...focus
...set the goal
...think that you can
...never give up





* pic from my Aikido training.

angklung

What a nice weekend I had.

I went to Chiba, a city in a prefecture northern Tokyo, to watch an angklung team in Chiba having a rehearsal. Amazing, that the motors of this angklung team are Japanese people --who indeed seem to love Indonesia very much: ability in speaking Bahasa Indonesia, good knowledge about Indonesian culture, and Indonesian sytle interior in the team president's house! Thanks to Teh Nina, who introduced me to Ibu Kawanami :)

I felt very welcomed.
By their generousity, and also by a sudden request from the conductor to teach them how to vibrate the angklung ;) and she kept asking my comment after each song!
Well, once again, never imagined that I myself did such things! :d
It was really fun to get into such community and I was very pleased also knowing that there are foreigners who love our angklung that much! (Go my friends in KPA3, expand the sound of angklung more, -of course after paying our debt :p )

Click here to see Angklung chiba performances last concert.

***

Music is a universal language. We may not communicate by the same language to people next to us, but music can be such a bridge. See here, when international students in Titech shared themselves through the music in last autumn welcoming party. So, when words fail to explain your self, why don't you try to use the music? ;) --a bunch of thanks to my Indonesian fellows in Titech.

My life walked in really slow pace lately. I need great driving force to finish my internship report -still writing till now, but blogging is much easier :p My gabor is still stuck, I need to debug it -but it seems that other stuffs are more interesting to do, such as trying aikido which finally hurts me :d

Meanwhile, it seems that earthquake starts to occur everywhere. In Indonesia: 9-Richter scale in Aceh, 8-Richter scale in Nias, also 5-Richter scale Bandung. and here in Japan: 7-Richter scale a month ago in Fukuoka, and 6-Richter scale near Tokyo -that once again became my effective alarm in the morning. And other countless natural disasters. May Allah always protect us.

* Pic added after a performance in summer.

the change

titech on late december 2004


titech on early april 2005

Things DO change, as the time goes by

And I'm still here on my stagnancy
knitting the things that later I will call as memories

home sweet home

Twenty-one-hour-journey from Tokyo to Fukuoka -a holiday that I finally had after one month being trapped in a small box in the old building in Tokyo :p

I'm home now. After five years!
Home?
Yup, such a place that I have missed in these six months.
A place that I have been looking for just to bring my spirit back after a long walk.

-desiree-

Hope to be able, again, to be back to a place that I call home.

my family in the neighborhood

my high school yard!

お父さん、お母さん、亮ちゃん、裕美佳ちゃん、親切に私を重松家に受け入れてくれて
まことにどうもありがとうございました。

early spring

campus in early spring...
will things change when the red turns into white...?
I am afraid.

[picture by waluyohadi]

plums in the spring

After long absence finally I have something to write here. The inspiration were just blurred away either because of no inspiration or just too much :p

I went to the plum garden in Ome, 2 hours by train outside Tokyo. The area was really like country side: peaceful, mountainous, fresh air, blue river, and no ticket machine in the train station :)

Plum blossoms start to bloom in the beginning of Spring in Japan, before cherry blossoms (or its famous name, sakura) complete the Spring atmosphere with their beauty. We walked in the area about 12 kilos (I didn't realize that it was that far) and one Japanese woman who also came with us taught me about haiku (or short poem --a kind of poem from which Yoshigawa Eiji, the author of Musashi whose childhood was also in Ome, started his career as a writer)

This is the haiku that I made while following the pathway to the otherside of the hills, gazing far into the blue sky.
春が来て愛の花も咲いている。。。

gaijin

"Ssshhhh....."
That noise interrupted our talk on the way home tonight.
"Ssshhhh....."
Ouch, it seemed that it didn't want to give up.
Feeling disturbed, we looked at the source of this noise. 50 years old man.
Shoganai. We then moved to other side of the train. But he intentionally followed us.

Then we, three foreigners -a Korean, a French, and I-, simply ignored him and kept talking until then we heard again,
"Ssshhhh....."
"...doshite sono gaijin ga sonnani urusai naa!!"
(means: why that foreigners are that noisy!!)

"Ssshhhh....."
.....in the train. 9 pm.
Drunk people.
Or maybe it was also one of the realities I saw here that there are still people who don't like foreigners.

Apart from that, life is good.
Japanese people whom I interact to are very nice. I had good farewell party yesterday night in one of YSEP professors' house. I had started working on my final project. It is snowing again tonight.
Nothing can be better.

卒論発表

read: sotsuron happyoo
meaning: final presentation

I attended B4 (forth year undergraduate students) sotsuron happyoo (as one of the requirements to graduate) today. Completely different to my home university final presentation, or we call it "sidang tugas akhir". In my home university, one may spend an hour (or even more) for the whole presentation. Three to four lecturers sit in front of you, listening then asking you a bunch of questions almost to every detail. --Actually I don't really know about this, I have just attended my seniors' presentation twice, and I hope that I myself will have experienced this by next year.

In sotsuron happyou today, from 9:00 to 11:44, about 15 students from three different labs (my lab and other two) did the presentation together hosted by one of them. No special place for the professors so that they didn't look like judges ;p Each student did his presentation about his final project in 7 minutes, then next 4 minutes for questions & answers section. It was really like a second, and sometimes the presenter spoke very fast to catch all of what he wanted to say in very short time (there was even a time keeper to ring the bell!)

Different cultures --what culture?!.. work culture? ;)
Maybe that is why that system is applicable here. Well, not really have any idea of the reasons. --I'm waiting for anybody to comment on. So what do you think?

shake!

---

From news today:

A moderate earthquake occurred at 19:46:38 (UTC) on Tuesday, February 15, 2005. The magnitude 5.2 event has been located in EASTERN HONSHU, JAPAN. The hypocentral depth was estimated to be 65 km (41 miles). (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

---

Ooouch..so here it is the earthquake that woke me up at 4.48 this morning. It is reported that the distance of epicentrum from Tokyo is 45 km NNW. No wonder I felt my house shaking pretty hard. I then woke up and got ready if I had to hide under the table and run to the evacuation area. As an-earthquake-high-risk country --it is also said that Kanto daijishin (Kanto area great earthquake) is predicted to occur in these 5 years, Japan anticipates earthquake by building evacuation area in each ward (usually in a wide open air area). Life safety learning is also held almost everywhere, and here are what I learnt about things to do when there is an earthquake:

1. Protect your self --hide under the robust table.

2. Turn off gas as fire is likely to occur following an earthquake --but in Japan, the gas now is automatically turned off when over-5-richter-scale earthquake occurs.

3. Open the door --as your exit to avoid you being trapped in a closed room.

4. Go to the evacuation area --bring your earthquake bag (3 liters water, light food, and clothes)

kabuki

"Are you American?"
"No. I'm Indonesian."
Weird. Do I look like American?

Even more weird when I found out that those who asked me that question were American. I met them in the front of Kabuki theater, when I asked one of them to take me picture as I went down town alone today. That ojiisan (again) sent me Kabuki ticket as he regret my absence on his invitation to come to the Kabuki performance two months ago. Sumo and kabuki are the must-see-Japanese-cultures, I remember he said last time, so that when I received his typical -Japanese style- letter, I know I should put this as high priority.

Kabuki is Japanese traditional drama, dance, and music, that was originally well known in Edo period. All of the actors are men and they will dress up as woman based on the play. The performance ran for four hours, three parts. I could not help keeping my eyes opened in the first two parts because their Japanese were hard to catch and they talked really slow. And the music from koto (Japanese traditional zither) just made my attempts to keep paying attention to the play useless. The last part, fortunately I still had enough spirit to stay there, was the best. No conversations. Just dance and music.The dance arrangement and the stage layout suited each other. the music was more lively with shamisen (Japanese traditional guitar), small taiko (Japanese drum), and song.

Awesome.

Today was just really special. I took the wrong subway to go to the Kabuki theater. Although it was still fine since I still could find station to transfer to the final line to get there --I need to transfer line twice normally but today was only once, I had to pay twice higher because I took the subway from different company. So for those who will experience taking Namboku line or Mita line from Meguro station, be careful as both of them run in the same railway! Meguro station is far smaller than Shinjuku or Shibuya station, but today was the third problems I ever had in this station.

I was wondering whether Tokyo hit zero degree celcius again tonight. It was so cold that it hurt my nails when I was walking down the hill --ya, it is kind of hill from the Fujigaoka station to my dorm. Funny. I found one glove (only one, not a pair) on the way --that was almost surprised me, and one shoe (again, only one, not a pair of shoes) few minutes after.

Anyway. Weekend ends.
Time to go to bed.
To transfer my day dreaming to the real night dreaming :p


*Pics: the Kabuki theather I went today